About the Award-UNESCO-ICHEI

IIOE Pioneer Case Award

The IIOE Pioneer Award was established by UNESCO-ICHEI to promote digital transformation of higher education by recognising good practices from IIOE partners, higher education institutes, enterprises, and beyond.

About the Pioneer Case Award

The "IIOE Higher Education Digitalisation Pioneer Case Award" (hereinafter referred to as "the Pioneer Award") is established by the International Centre for Higher Education Innovation under the auspices of UNESCO (hereinafter referred to as "UNESCO-ICHEI") to promote digital transformation of higher education. Iterating with the evolving higher education landscape, the Pioneer Award strives to recognise the latest developments and innovative practices among IIOE partners, and rewards teams and individuals who have made outstanding contributions to this effort. The inaugural Pioneer Award was launched in 2023, themed "The Reform and Innovation of Blended Learning in Higher Education," where 22 laureates from 12 sub-regions worldwide received the Pioneer Award.

The theme of the 2025 Pioneer Award is "IIOE Ecosystem-driven Promising Practices: Empowering Workforce, Innovation, and Collaboration", which aims to recognise achievements of teams and individuals of IIOE partners, who are pioneering IIOE flagship projects to facilitate digital transformation, including but not limited to upskilling the higher education workforce, improving infrastructure to advance digital transformation and professional development, as well as engaging in multi-lateral cooperation to accelerate digital transformation and beyond.

2025 IIOE Pioneer Case Award Categories:

In 2025, the IIOE Higher Education Digitalisation Pioneer Award will be reviewing cases from the following areas

Developing Digital and AI Competencies through IIOE Micro-certification

The IIOE Micro-Certification Project for Higher Education Workforce Digital Competency Building is an IIOE flagship project focusing on the reskilling and upskilling of the higher education workforce. The project aims to enhance their digital and AI competencies by utilising IIOE courses, platform, and resources and striving for recognition from respective government agencies or HEI supervision departments.

Enabling localised digital empowerment initiatives through IIOE National Centres

Since its establishment in 2019, IIOE has expanded into a global network of more than 120 higher education institutions (HEIs) across 41 countries in 11 sub-regions, including 12 IIOE National Centres in Africa and Asia. These National Centres have made significant strides in empowering the higher education workforce and advancing the digital transformation of HEIs in their respective countries. The time is ripe for collecting and sharing good practices of IIOE National Centres, and promoting peer learning, thereby inspiring more localised initiatives to emerge.

Leveraging Smart Classroom Operations for Teaching and Learning Innovation and Excellence

The Smart Classroom Project is a flagship project of UNESCO-ICHEI. Through cooperation with enterprises, smart classrooms containing hardware and software facilities are donated to universities that need infrastructure to embrace digital technology to enhance their digital education quality.

Strengthening Global Industry-university Collaboration for Higher Education Digital Empowerment

Multi-lateral collaboration and public-private partnerships foster the IIOE ecosystem collaboration, where enterprises and the industry play a vital role in building infrastructure, providing training, and accelerating workforce competency-building. This category aims to award enterprises that have made significant contributions or tangible outcomes by cooperating with HEIs in the IIOE ecosystem.

The 2023 Award Ceremony

2023 Award Winner

IIOE Pioneer Case Award